Spinks: Better Heavyweight, Leon or Michael?

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=121545

 

Michael was way better than Leon. I doubt if anyone who knows about their careers would disgree with that.

 

Mike was honestly a better technical heavyweight than Leon.. He had ring smarts many fighters today would kill for..

 

You got the brothers mixed up. To answer the question - Michael.

 

Michael

 

I've always found Leon's win against the ultra dangerous and much avoided Bernardo Mercado sadly forgotten. Not bad for a fighter who had been blown out in one round by Coetzee a year before (When Coetzee talked to him and psyched him out badly in the first. Leon always had confidence/mental issues)

Also not bad considering Leon was in reality a cruiserweight.

I've got the Spinks/Cobb fight when Leon was 35 years old and almost 30 pounds overweight. Sloppy fight but Leon came to fight, quite the rough barn burner.

 

Very true :thumbsup


Leon was better then people think...he just was a headcase and he cops of a bit of backlash for beating an old Ali.

 

Michael.

 

Michael.

 

Michael Spinks was by far and above the better FIGHTER, but At heavyweight? Difficult to say. Both men's prime at heavyweight were short lived. Both men defeated declining versions of great champions in indecisive fashion. They both had a few decent wins that followed, such as Michael's win over Cooney and Leon's win over Mercado. Michael fought very few bouts at heavyweight, while Leon stepped up in comp with very few pro fights.

I'm thinking Michael was the slightly better fighter even at heavyweight. I don't know if I see him losing in only one round to Coetzee nor picking up a draw against Eddie Lopez. Nor am I sure that even a prime Leon would beat even a 35 year old Holmes, given how easily he lost just 3 years earlier.

 

It depends on what you're looking at when you ask for "better."

Michael deserves to be rated higher even at HW IMO.

However, put Michael and Leon in the ring, both at their bests, I might actually favor Leon to beat him.

 

i think Michael would beat Leon by decision at heavyweight

 

Yeah, not training in the least, not giving a **** and snorting coke = career death.

 

Michael was a better heavyweight than Leon by a very wide margin. Leon was always vulnerable, and at his best, he was barely a top 10 in terms of ability.

Leon's best wins were a decision over a totally out-of-shape and aging Ali, and a kayo over so-so Bernardo Mercado. These aren't bad credentials, but I think Leon's knockout losses to Gerrie Coetzee and Larry Holmes tell us more about his true abilities as a heavyweight.

If Leon had arrived a few years later -- in the '80s -- he would have passed his career as a cruiserweight, and he would have done better.